Residents Fleeing South Florida Ahead of Irma

(8 Sep 2017) Mayor Carlos Gimenez says more than 660,000 residents of Miami-Dade County must evacuate and find hurricane-proof shelter as Irma bears down on Florida. An AP photographer recorded motorists at a service area along I-75 about 70 miles northwest of Miami who were gassing up their vehicles as they headed north. "All the gas stations in Miami are empty," said Michelle Pineta. "But as far as getting here, so far, so good. So, hopefully it stays this way." Florida's emergency management division says nearly 6,000 people are already huddling in shelters ahead of Hurricane Irma. Most of the evacuees are gathered in shelters in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where catastrophic Category 4 winds are expected to hit this weekend. Hundreds of thousands of residents have fled in anticipation of Irma's winds and storm surge, which have already killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean. Many roads leaving the state have been jammed with traffic. The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust says more than 1,000 people live on the streets in Miami, and only 300 have been evacuated so far. Many are willingly moving to shelters, but some have to be detained using the 'Baker Act', a law which allows officers to hospitalize people with mental illness against their will. Gov. Rick Scott has directed all public schools, colleges and universities and state offices to close through Monday at least to make them available for shelter and staging of recovery efforts. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...